The devil wants to use this situation precisely so that all the scholars are put to death, along with them Daniel and his friends. When Nebuchadnezzar threatens to kill the scholars, the four friends are yet to complete their training. In Daniel 1:1–21, it is clear that their education begins in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. What we read of in Daniel 2:1–49 is happening in the second year of king Nebuchadnezzar. When we then consider that the training at court lasted three years, it becomes clear that they are still being schooled. Daniel and his friends are counted among the wise men because they are their students, but Daniel is not fully recognised yet, because when Arioch presents him to the king (see Daniel 2:25), he is not announced as someone who belongs to one of the four groups. Daniel has not yet obtained a title as the crowning glory of his education. Arioch introduces him with these words, I have found among the Judean exiles someone who can explain the king’s dream.
So it is that Daniel and his friends are now also threatened with death. If they are to die, humanly speaking, it makes it a lot easier for the devil to Babylonize
the people of God, to Babylonize
the church in exile. He would, then, make the church even worldlier.
9 if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.”